Instructions

Add oats, water, salt, and any additional add-ins (optional) to a high-speed blender. Top with lid and cover with a towel to ensure it doesn't splash. Blend for about 1 minute or until the mixture seems well combined. It doesn't have to be 100% pulverized. In fact, over-blending can make the oat milk slimy in texture.

Scoop out a small sample with a spoon to test flavor/sweetness. If it's not sweet enough, add more dates.

Pour the mixture over a large mixing bowl or pitcher covered with a very thin towel or a clean T-shirt. In my experience, it benefits from a double strain through a very fine towel to remove any oat remnants. A nut milk bag seemed to let too much residue through.

Transfer to a sealed container and refrigerate. Will keep in the refrigerator up to 5 days (sometimes more). Shake well and enjoy cold. DO NOT HEAT or it will thicken and become gelatinous in texture. It's delicious as is or added to granola, smoothies, or baked goods!

Notes

*You can use steel-cut oats, but I found them to make the oat milk gummy and didn't enjoy their flavor as much.*Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated with no additional add-ins, and the oat "pulp" nutritional content removed.

Canning jars are your friends. I would recommend the plastic lids, which don’t actually touch the food unless it tips over :-) but canning jars are glass, cheap, easy, and can easily be bought in quantity. I prefer the widemouth type personally for most uses.

Wide mouth is a must for easy cleaning unless you have the tiny mason jars that are the size of spices. I also prefer the soda can sized ones for easy stacking and freezing! The buldgy ones can’t stack or freeze.

Thanks, Dana! For those of us with high-speed blenders, at what speed are you blending the mixture for one minute? I pulsed my Vitamix at 3 a few times then let it blend for no more than 20 seconds. I feel that had I blended longer, the oat milk would have gotten too slimy. Thanks!

Hey, just thought I might mention that raw oats contain a high amount of phylates, which can interfere with absorption of all those good nutrients. Soaking the oats overnight in warm water with some lemon juice or a bit of rye flour will help. Also will be less slimy when blended!

Thanks for bringing this up about foods high in phytic acid because this can affect people with digestion issues. According to this website, in addition to acid soaking, phytase is destroyed when soaking at 131-149 degrees F for 10 minutes and/or by grinding the oats before use. I’ve been making oat milk but haven’t been doing this (and I have digestive issues). I’m going to soak the oats overnight with lemon juice, and (or) then soak them again in boiling water (140 degrees F) for 10 minutes. I think grinding the oats might make it too gummy. Hopefully that will help!

Phytates are really not a problem. It is really the creation of meat industry who is seeing market share decline as people recognize the health risks of their product. So they have created this fear of phytates found in many plant foods, especially those like beans which are high in protein and so are the most direct threat to their products. What they did was take some highly reductionist science that says that phytates can bind to some minerals and so reduce their absorption. What they don’t talk about because it would ruin their scary story is that phytates are proteins and so are nearly completely denatured (they lose their shape and binding potential) when cooked. Also phytates are broken down when beans are sprouted. So phytates would only be an issue if you ate significant amounts of completely raw and unsprouted beans and who does that. Plus the small amount of phytates that do remain after cooking or spouting have been shown to help suppress cancer growth.
As for oats, rolled oats have already been cooked (steamed), rolled flat and then dried. So rolled oats should have very little phytates in them at all.

This recipe is so easy and fast! I used my Vitamix at level 5 for roughly 45 seconds and strained it 3-4x. The drink tasted great for what I needed (nut/soy/dairy free), but was a bit too sweet with maple syrup so I will try using dates next time. Thank you for posting!

My 18 year old has never liked baby cow milk, but enjoys non-dairy milks in her cereal and lattes. I’ve literally never seen her drink a glass of milk before and she drank two small glasses of this delicious and health milk! I used my Chemex pour over coffee system with an unused metal coffee filter – it worked like a dream!

Hi! For anyone wanting to try: I tried today with a regular (500 watt blender). Pretty quick worked my way up the settings to liquify. Whole blending process was around a minute? I did half the recipe, and a little less water than indicated. And I used my natural fiber nut milk bag from EcoPeaceful. Success! Not slimy, residue not an issue. Hope that helps!

Oh, and I used the oat milk to substitute for buttermilk in a pancake recipe. Added in some lemon juice instead for that acidity (as recommended in America’s Test Kitchen Vegan for Everybody cookbook). Pancakes were great! So I don’t know if cooking a solid with the oatmilk would be an issue (or baking) since it wasn’t for me in this instance. Happy cooking! -Donna

Hi, love all ur recipes. For some reason I am not able to print any of them. Just shows up as blank paper. Is there something I can do to correct this. I’m old school, and sometimes like a hard copy. Thank you so much. Love your book and have bought extras for friends. Keep up the awesome work and recipes.
Thanks so much,
Myra

I tried to make it today twice with Blentec on pulse x 1 min. Both times milk came out very slimy. I used regular rolled oats. Additionally using thin towel took forever to drain, I just squeezed the whole thing which was messy.

Two questions:

– should I blend for shorter time and if yes what setting on Blendtec. I have options of plus minis and then buttons for ice cream, juice, soups etc.

The taste and texture are amazing right after making it. I try to make only enough to last 2-3 days. My question pertains to the texture after the first day, am I the only one that thinks it gets slimy after sitting in the fridge overnight? Any suggestions on how to prevent the texture change?

I happened to run out soy milk today then I remembered your oat milk recipe. Made it today, I added dates, little honey and a teaspoon of vanilla. It is good, I like it very much. Will made cashew milk next.
Thank you.

Hi everbody,
I tried this recipe it was supereasy. I would like to get a step further. I love coffee oat milk latte. Does anybody know the recipe of oat milk you could heat up without going to be thick?
Marina

So I made the receipe and it has worked out really good so far, but im noticing that in the fridge it is seperating a lot. I dont know if its just the way I made it? (since this is my first time making my own milk)

Just reporting my use of oat milk for those wondering about heating it. I made the switch from nut milk to oat to save money last summer. But I love the taste and texture too. Not to mention how much easier it is to make! I have used oat milk in vegan pasta sauces and risottos- no problems with heating it up, no clumping or separating, and it actually thickens great! Vegan piccata, vegan mushroom soup, sweet potatoes, cauliflower rice, vegan fruit cobbler, and in my coffee or chai tea :)

Hi Dana, I’m vegan moving towards zero waste and I’m trying to make a milk that I can use in cappuccinos. I’ve tried the almond milk and while it tasted amazing cold was aweful frothed. Any recommendations?

My go-to for frothing is Almond Breeze’s almond coconut blend, and my thought is maybe mixing either, almond or rice milk, with coconut milk– might yield a good cappuccino. Do you have any recommendations?

I have made this a few times. Just bought a milk bag to strain the milk, worked wonderfully without any mess. I do have a question, can you use the left over oats in a cereal or whatever? If so does anyone have recipes or suggestions.

Just reading through this and lots of questions about why it doesn’t heat well. I would suggest it doesn’t heat well because it is not strained well enough and the fine oat particles that aren’t strained cook into a wet porridge.
I haven’t tried it, but maybe straining with a fine cloth or cheesecloth first, then straining again throug a paper coffee filter.
Even that may not be enough and you really need a centrifuge. If it settles in the fridge, try just using the supernate.

Thank you! I’ve been buying Oatly but now they’re sold out so I turned to the web & found your recipe, thanks!! I make almond milk all the time but hadn’t thought about making oat – silly me! You & Loving it Vegan are my starting points. Again, thanks for putting in the effort to make a beautiful & useful blog. Amy

I followed your ratios but made some modifications! I only had whole oat berries on hand, which worked fine. I also didn’t have cheese cloth on hand, too lazy to filter, and don’t want to miss out on nutrients so I just blended it and let it settle for a minute – pour off the top 90% to keep as plain milk. Then I tripled the water, added more sugar and cocoa powder and made a great thick chocolate milk! Throw in some bananas if you want :-)

I just made it for the first time when I ran out of store bought oat milk. Didn’t read all comments until I had it in my first cup of coffee. I probably over-blended it [over a minute]; first just oats, vanilla and water, then it needed a sweetener so blended again with one date added. Used it [unstrained] all frothy in my coffee and it was delicious. Now I noticed a fair bit of pulp in cup’s bottom so just tossed it. Next time I’ll let it settle in the blender first and pour off top 90% for milk use and then use the pulp in a smoothie as Jonathan Levley suggested! Thanks for the great recipe Dana!

I just tried this recipe and LOVE IT! Couldn’t be any easier. I used a regular blender (my old Waring Pro) atbthe higher of the two available speeds for about 90 seconds. Strained it using a plain old fine mesh strainer. Worked fine! Now…the pulp seems too good to throw away. I just put it in a pot with some water and cooked it a bit. It’s like porridge. Add some fruit or chopped dates? Is this ok to eat since it’s not really cooked?

I made this today, and it tastes pretty great! I made mine with half soy milk and half water, which made it creamier for sure. I am allergic to dairy, and I miss having cream in my coffee, so this works perfectly! Thank you so much for this!